One Human Family

“As I have loved you, so you also should love

one another”

World Migrant and Refugee Sunday

Resource Pack

Irish Episcopal Council for Immigrants World Day for Migrants and Refugees 2011 Resource Pack

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Contents

1. Extracts from the Message of His Holiness Benedict XVI for the 97th Day of

Migrants and Refugees (2011) “One Human Family”

2. Further quotes from the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants

and Itinerant People

3. Prayer for One Human Family

4. World Day for Migrants and Refugees Prayers of the Faithful

5. Parish Bulletin Insert

6. Homily Suggestion

7. Background to Migration and about whom are we speaking?

8. Irish Migration Statistics

9. Useful Additional Online Resources

10. About the Irish Episcopal Council for Immigrants

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One Human Family: Popes Message for World Day of Migrants and Refugees

January 16, 2011

Pope Benedict XVI in his message for the next World Day for Migrants and Refugees, which will be held January 16, 2011, has chosen the theme "one family of brothers and sisters in societies that are becoming ever more multiethnic and intercultural, where also people of various religions are urged to take part in dialogue, so that a serene and fruitful coexistence with respect for legitimate differences may be found". Extracts from the Pope’s Message General "The World Day of Migrants and Refugees offers the whole Church an opportunity to reflect on a theme linked to the growing phenomenon of migration, to pray that hearts may open to Christian welcome and to the effort to increase in the world justice and charity, pillars on which to build an authentic and lasting peace,” wrote the Pontiff. “All,” he continued, “belong to one family, migrants and the local populations that welcome them, and all have the same right to enjoy the goods of the earth whose destination is universal, as the social doctrine of the Church teaches. It is here that solidarity and sharing are founded.” However, the Pope added, “States have the right to regulate migration flows and to defend their own frontiers, always guaranteeing the respect due to the dignity of each and every human person. Immigrants, moreover, have the duty to integrate into the host country, respecting its laws and its national identity.” Refugees and forced Migrants Addressing the situation of refugees and forced migrants, Pope Benedict said that “those who are forced to leave their homes or their country” should be “helped to find a place where they may live in peace and safety, where they may work and take on the rights and duties that exist in the country that welcomes them, contributing to the common good and without forgetting the religious dimension of life.” There is a "dutiful gesture of human solidarity" and "secific commitments’made by the international community. "Respect of their rights, as well as the legitimate concern for security and social coherence, foster a stable and harmonious coexistence". Globalisation and Migration The phenomenon of globalisation, characteristic of our age, "is not only a social and economic process, but also entails ‘humanity itself [that] is becoming increasingly interconnected’, crossing geographical and cultural boundaries. In this regard, the Church does not cease to recall that the deep sense of this epochal process and its fundamental ethical criterion are given by the unity of the human family and its development towards what is good (cf. Benedict XVI, Encyclical Caritas in veritate, 42). All, therefore, belong to one family, migrants and the local populations that welcome them, and all have the same right to

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enjoy the goods of the earth whose destination is universal, as the social doctrine of the Church teaches. It is here that solidarity and sharing are founded". Universal Common Good The message emphasises what John Paul II wrote in 2001 marking the World Day, that “the universal common good "includes the whole family of peoples, beyond every nationalistic egoism. The right to emigrate must be considered in this context. The Church recognizes this right in every human person, in its dual aspect of the possibility to leave one’s country and the possibility to enter another country to look for better conditions of life” (Message for World Day of Migration 2001, 3; cf. John XXIII, Encyclical Mater et Magistra, 30; Paul VI, EncyclicalOctogesima adveniens, 17). Foreign and International Students Foreign and international students, "are also a growing reality in the great migration". "This, as well, is a socially important category with a view to their return, as future leaders, to their Countries of origin. They constitute cultural and economic “bridges” between these Countries and the host Countries, and all this goes precisely in the direction of forming “one human family”. This is the conviction that must support the commitment to foreign students and must accompany attention to their practical problems, such as financial difficulties or the hardship of feeling alone in facing a very different social and university context, as well as the difficulties of integration”. New Diversified World We Live in "The world of immigrants” - concluded Benedict XVI –“is vast and diversified. It knows wonderful and promising experiences, as well as, unfortunately, so many others that are tragic and unworthy of the human being and of societies that claim to be civil. For the Church this reality constitutes an eloquent sign of our times which further highlights humanity’s vocation to form one family, and, at the same time, the difficulties which, instead of uniting it, divide it and tear it apart. Let us not lose hope and let us together pray God, the Father of all, to help us – each in the first person – to be men and women capable of brotherly relationships and, at the social, political and institutional levels, so that understanding and reciprocal esteem among peoples and cultures may increase". For a full copy of the Message of His Holiness Benedict XVI for the 97th Day of Migrants and Refugees (2011) “One Human Family” see: http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/messages/migration/documents/hf_ben-xvi_mes_20100927_world-migrants-day_en.html or http://catholicbishops.ie/migrants

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Further quotes from the President and Secretary of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People

Archbishop Antonio Maria Veglio – President of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People – and secretary Fr. Gabriele Bentoglio stated that there are currently 15 million refugees in the world. Fr. Bentoglio added that "the number of internally displaced persons, above all as relates to cases of violation of human rights, stands at around twenty-seven million.” "The challenge," he said, "consists in creating areas of tolerance, hope, healing and protection, and in ensuring that these dramas and tragedies – too often experienced in the past and in the present – never happen again.” On the inherent struggles within society in welcoming individuals from other cultures, Archbishop Veglio noted that “the Holy Father's Message also reinforces the international community's perception of the importance of dialogue and promotes the recognition of human rights for everyone, combating new forms of racism and discrimination.” Ultimately the objective, Fr. Bentoglio added, is "to guarantee refugees, asylum seekers and internally displaced persons are given the concrete possibility to develop their human potential.” Pope Benedict also emphasised in his message on human unity that that “the presence of the Church, as the People of God journeying through history among all the other peoples, is a source of trust and hope.” “It is the Holy Eucharist in particular that constitutes, in the heart of the Church, an inexhaustible source of communion for the whole of humanity,” he underscored. “It is thanks to this that the People of God includes 'every nation, race, people, and tongue,' not with a sort of sacred power but with the superior service of charity.”

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Prayer for One Human Family

Good and gracious God, we thank you for the gift of families.

We are grateful for all of the joy and love that they bring into our lives, and we ask that you provide

special protection for all families, particularly those who face hardships as they move in search of a better life.

Show mercy to those who travel in danger, and lead them to a place of safety and peace.

Comfort those who are alone and afraid because their families have been torn apart by violence

and injustice.

As we reflect upon the difficult journey that the Holy Family faced as refugees in Egypt,

help us to remember the suffering of all migrant families.

Through the intercession of Mary our Mother, and St. Joseph the Worker, her spouse,

we pray that all migrants may be reunited with their loved ones and find the meaningful work they seek.

Open our hearts so that we may provide hospitality for all who come in search of refuge.

Give us the courage to welcome every stranger

as Christ in our midst. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,

one God forever and ever. Amen. (US Bishops’ Conference)

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World Day for Migrants and Refugees Prayers of the Faithful Presider:

As members of the human family, and family of God, gathered in this place, we place our needs before the Lord.

1. We pray for all God’s people:

May we be open and welcoming to our brothers and sisters from many other places and cultures who have come to live among us. Lord hear us.

2. We pray for the leaders of our Church: May they always put before us the need to welcome the stranger. Lord hear us.

3. We pray for civil leaders: May they balance wisely the need to protect their countries, and generosity towards those who seek refuge and a new life. Lord hear us.

4. We pray for those who have been forced to leave their homes; those studying and working abroad; those on the missions: May they find a welcome, and be able to make a contribution to the countries in which they settle. Lord hear us.

5. We pray for those who have left this life and have made the journey to God: May they find eternal peace and rest with Mary and the Saints. Lord hear us.

Presider: Lord God, You gave your Son Jesus as a light to the nations, and to bring all men and women to you. Help us to build a community of love and respect so that your salvation may truly reach the ends of the earth. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

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Parish Bulletin Insert Pope Benedict XVI in his message for the World Day for Migrants and Refugees, on January 16, 2011, has chosen the theme "one family of brothers and sisters in societies that are becoming ever more multiethnic and intercultural, where also people of various religions are urged to take part in dialogue, so that a serene and fruitful coexistence with respect for legitimate differences may be found". "The World Day of Migrants and Refugees offers the whole Church an opportunity to reflect on a theme linked to the growing phenomenon of migration, to pray that hearts may open to Christian welcome and to the effort to increase in the world justice and charity, pillars on which to build an authentic and lasting peace,” wrote the Pontiff. “All,” he continued, “belong to one family, migrants and the local populations that welcome them, and all have the same right to enjoy the goods of the earth whose destination is universal, as the social doctrine of the Church teaches. It is here that solidarity and sharing are founded.”

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Homily Suggestion

Most of us have had some experience of moving. Think of the first time you ever moved home, perhaps as a child with your family. Think of the time you left home as a young adult, moving away for work or for college. Some of us here today have probably had even bigger moves – leaving behind our homeland, our country, sometimes through choice, and sometimes through the harsh realities of circumstances. Migration is a reality that touches every person and every community today, whether it is migration with a capital ‘M’ or migration with a small ‘m’ when we are displaced within our own country. In the gospel parable Parables of the Lost Sheep and Coin (Luke 15:1-10) nearly everyone is moving. The lost sheep has gone off on its own, leaving the ninety-nine to themselves, and the shepherd goes after it. The woman who finds her coin goes out to her friends and neighbours and invites them back into her own home. The younger son leaves his father and goes off to a distant country. In each parable there is a message for us about what it means to be away from the security of our home, and what it means for us to welcome others who are unknown to us. We are used to hearing the parable of the lost sheep that we forget how surprising it is. Jesus says: ‘if you lost one sheep, wouldn’t you leave ninety-nine others in the wilderness and go looking for it? The natural answer, surely, is ‘no’. You wouldn’t risk the safety of the ninety-nine by going on a dangerous and uncertain hunt across the mountains. The lost sheep is not special, and it’s certainly not worth

more than then ninety-nine sheep put together. Unless, as a shepherd, you stop to think what this sheep is going through. The anxiety of being lost, the loneliness of being separated from the sheep you know and love, the fear that you may never find any security or friendship again. It’s this understanding and compassion in the heart of the shepherd that makes him realise that the lost sheep matters far more than the ones that are safe – because of the suffering it’s going through. We need to have this kind of compassion and sensitivity with all the people we meet, especially with those on the edge of our communities – in the parish, in our schools, in our neighbourhoods and places of work. Perhaps we look at someone and think ‘It’s just another person – I hardly know them’. But what a difference it would make if we stopped to think: Where are you from? Have you settled in here yet? What are going through? Do you have any one to turn to? Just by asking these questions to ourselves, it would help us to be more open to others. Our hearts will become more tender if we realise that every person we meet has a tender heart of their own. Very often we can show support to someone simply by stopping to talk to them, asking them how they ar. Especially the people we don’t know, the ones we are bit nervous with because they are different from us.. We don’t need to be do-gooders who are always interfering in the lives of others, but reaching out with love and sensitivity to those we don’t know in our communities can be one of the greatest acts of kindness. It

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makes us like the Good Shepherd in the parable. The woman who find s her lost coin is another character who acts in surprising ways. The coin, a drachma is not a large amount of money. Would you throw a house party and invited your neighbours in if you found a few euros you had lost? Of course not. The parable shows us the joy of heaven whenever someone repents of their sins. It also shows us something about God’s love, which is like the extravagant love of this woman. When something good happens, even something relatively small, she can’t contain herself. She needs to share it with people around her, to celebrate. She has such a big heart that she want to include everyone in her joy. Not just her friends, the people she knows and loves, but also her neighbours – the people who just happened to be around, living nearby, or passing by. Think of your own neighbours at home. Imagine a circle with your home at the centre that was wide enough to include the hundred people who live closest to you. The circle of your immediate neighbours. How many of these hundred people do you know? How many of them have you ever talked to? How many of them would you even recognise? This woman’s heart was big enough to include everyone who came into her orbit, by geographical chance. So many people come into orbit around our own lives, not just at home, but in all the situations of our day. We are usually good with our friends. We give them time and attention and love; we ask them how they ar. This parable is a real challenge to us

because the woman includes her neighbours as well as her friends. It’s something we can do in different ways. Building bridges, stepping over barriers, even tearing them down. The last parable in the gospel is the well know parable of the prodigal son. You have probably heard many different sermons on the younger son, or about his father, or about his older brother who stayed at home. But there is another group of people in this aprable that we don’t hear about very often: the local inhabitants of the foreign land where he was living. The land where the famine took place. This is what the story says: ‘he would willingly have filled his belly with the husks the pigs were eating, but no one offered him anything’. Here is a man, a migrant, a foreigner, who is starving to death. An no one helps him. It’s not because they are themselves starving and unable to help. The famine can’t be that severe, because they still have pigs to eat, and plenty of food to feed the pigs. But this stranger starves. Is it because no one notices him? Or is it because they do notice him but don’t care? Or are they caring people who think he somehow lies outside their responsibility? Whether it’s blindness, or callousness, or detachment, the effect is the same. Someone is left to die, and he only survives by escaping from the country that could help him and going home. The prodigal son is a beautiful parable about the mercy of God, but it’s also a parable about the suffering that immigrants and strangers often endure through the indifference of the people around them. It’s true that we can’t be responsible for the physical needs of every person that we meet each day.

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But it is our responsibility as Christians to open our hearts to those around us, especially those who are isolated, those who are stranger, those from another country, those who are vulnerable in any way. Perhaps you don’t know what you should do or how you should react. Perhaps you are afraid of getting involved in a situation that is too big for you to handle. That’s quite understandable. All Christ asks us to do is to take the first step. To say a few words of welcome, to ask someone how they are. If something develops from that, then he will help us as we go along.

We are not called to deal with an abstract situation, we are called simply to meet this person. This unique person may be a lost sheep, an unknown neighbour, or someone who has a father in a distant land. And this father may be praying that someone, somewhere – you and me – would speak to his dear child and welcome him with sensitivity and compassion. (CARJ (2010): Racial Justice Sunday – Migration: building bridges or barriers?)

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Background to Migration

Migration is the movement of people either across an international border, or within a State. It is a population movement, encompassing any kind of movement of people, whatever its length, composition and causes; it includes migration of refugees, displaced persons, uprooted people and economic migrants. (Source: International Organisation for Migration) Migration has been part of human history since the beginning of humankind. In all periods, people have left their homelands for a variety of reasons. Many migrants who arrive in Ireland do so after difficult journeys from their countries of origin. Some have fled hunger, war and persecution; some have been driven away by environmental changes or trafficked against their will. Others migrate, either temporarily or permanently, in search of greater opportunities or to widen their horizons. Those who migrate are generally not a homogeneous group. Generally speaking, a migrant can be defined as a person who has left his/her country of residence and has moved to another country to take up temporary or permanent residence in that country. Migrant worker is a person admitted to a country for the specific purposes of exercising an economic activity which is remunerated from within that country. The length of stay is usually restricted as is the type of employment that s/he can hold. A person seeking asylum (refugee) is someone fleeing persecution in his/her own country who has applied to the State to be recognised as a refugee. While in the asylum system a person has limited rights and is not allowed take up employment. A Refugee is a person whose application for asylum has been successful. A refugee has largely the same rights as a citizen. A person with leave to remain/subsidiary protection, although having fewer rights than a refugee, is allowed to live and work in the State. An undocumented migrant is a person who is not able to validate their residence or work in a country in accordance with the legal rules, including refused asylum seekers and visa outstayers. (Sanctuary: Migrant and Refugee Project)

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Irish Migration Statistics

• Worldwide the are some 43 million forcibly displaced persons whom over 15 million are refugees, almost 1 million are seeking asylum and 27 million are people displaced within borders of their own country. In addition it is estimated that some 12 million people are stateless. (UNHCR statistics)

• The 2006 census records the number of non Irish nationals in the republic

(from within and without the EU/EEA) at around 420,000, representing almost 10% of the total population. Of this 10%, over 7% come from Europe, 1.1% from Asia, 0.9% from Africa and 0.5% from America. (CSO statistics)

• Of the 39,000 people who came to Ireland in the year up to April 2009, over

70% were from other EU countries and the United States of America. (CSO Statistics)

• Of the 65,300 people who emigrated in the year to April 2010, Irish

nationals were the largest group accounting for 27,700 or 42 per cent. (CSO Statistics)

• It is estimated that there are some 50,000 irregular/undocumented Irish

migrants in the United States of America. (CSO Statistics)

• In 2010, Ireland has recognised 10,347 people as refugees. In 2009, just under 2,700 people came to Ireland seeking asylum, less than 0.5% of those who sought asylum worldwide. In the same year the highest number of asylum applications was made in South Africa (25%), followed by the US (5%) and France 9$%). (UNHCR statistics)

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Useful Additional Online Resources

Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/migrants/index.htm The Council of the Bishops’ Conferences of Europe Commission for Migration (CCEE) http://www.ccee.ch/index.php?&na=2,8,0,0,e The International Catholic Migration Commission http://www.icmc.net/ Caritas Europa http://www.caritas-europa.org/ Jesuit Refugee Services http://www.jrs.ie/ SPIRASI (Asylum Service Initiative) http://www.spirasi.ie/ Vincentians Refugee Centre http://www.vincentians.ie/VRC.htm

Non Governmental Organisation

Websites Immigrant Council of Ireland http://www.immigrantcouncil.ie/ Crosscare Migrant Project http://www.migrantproject.ie/ Integrating Ireland http://www.integratingireland.ie/ Migrants Rights Centre of Ireland http://www.mrci.ie/ Irish Refugee Council http://www.irishrefugeecouncil.ie/ NASC (The Irish Immigrant Support Centre, Cork) http://www.nascireland.org/

Governmental Websites

Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service http://www.inis.gov.ie Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform http://www.justice.ie Information on Work Permits http://www.entemp.ie Department of Social and Family Affairs http://www.welfare.ie

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About the Irish Episcopal Council for Immigrants

Immigration both voluntary and involuntary is a global phenomenon, touching every Irish parish today. Concern for the reception and treatment of immigrants and on the related question of pastoral care prompted the formation of the Irish Episcopal Council for Immigrants in September 2008. Its mission is to welcome, support and empower immigrants who live in Ireland. The Council serves as the centre of a network of diocesan and parish personnel who minister various ethnic groups and people on the move throughout the country. It is tasked with increasing pastoral awareness, cultural sensitivity, and the dynamics of outreach, welcome and support throughout its network. Inherent in its mission is the promotion and development of mutual respect and incorporation of the gifts and talents offered by diverse cultures into our parish lives. To fulfil this mission, the Council aims to develop and foster initiatives between the Bishops’ Conference and the dioceses and parishes in relation to the pastoral care of immigrants. Membership The Council is chaired by Most Rev. Eamon Walsh, Auxiliary Bishop to Dublin, and its members are; Fr. Brian McLaughlin CSSp, Fr. Jaroslaw Maszkiewicz, Sr. Louise O’Connell. Contact Details Irish Episcopal Council for Immigrants, Columba Centre, Maynooth, Co. Kildare

Field Officer: Helen Young Tel: +353 (0)1 505 3009 Fax: +353 (0)1 601 6401 Email: immigrants@iecon.ie